Re: Why is copying a file so hard?
Re: Why is copying a file so hard?
- Subject: Re: Why is copying a file so hard?
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:10:19 +0100
Doug McNutt wrote:
> >Bear in mind that AppleScript is regarded as a developer tool, not a user tool,
>
>Ah ha.. . .
>
>When was that changed? I really thought it was "English-like" in order to make it usable by the great American user. At least that's what I was told at a WW Developer Conference about the time OS 7 was introduced.
See my earlier point about 'user' vs 'developer' being a largely false distinction.
>And, if AppleScript is for developers only, why can't we have some less English-like and more C-like but well-defined constructs?
Because not every 'developer' is a low-level bit-twiddling systems programmer. Clearly, AppleScript's syntax and featureset is aimed squarely at the shallow end of the pool. There are plenty of other languages that already cater extremely well to the middle and deep end.
>Why are the four-character codes consistently hidden in dictionaries?
Because they're a low-level detail that high-level AppleScripters should never have to futz with directly. Sometimes the abstraction breaks down, unfortunately, usually due to bad design at that end (occasionally due to flaws in AS itself), which may leave some users with no choice but to deal with this grot directly. SE doesn't provide this information because it's intended to be simple, minimal and newbie-friendly so ignores such corner-case problems; there are other third-party tools that are designed to be complex, comprehensive and expert-friendly and you'll have no problem getting the necessary codes from those.
>Why can't I declare a type for a variable, for instance?
Because AppleScript is a dynamically-typed language, and dynamically-typed languages attach type information to values, not variables. Typed variables are a feature of statically-typed languages. If you want to use a statically-typed language, go and use a statically-typed language; don't use a dynamically-typed language then whine about how much you don't like its type system as you'll only sound like an idiot.
>Developers would NOT mind a prohibition on spaces in names of commands and variables which would greatly simplify both scripting and reading of other's scripts..
Again, there are plenty of other languages that do this. Why not use one of those?
has
--
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Applescript-users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden